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My child's third grade program is clearly about teaching to test. The classroom is disciplined -based and teacher centered. Children are required to whisper during their working snack time and eventually this will be taken away leaving them to work quietly. I am terribly disappointed that the lessons are not more about individual student progress and differences. I was told by the teacher that the beginning of the school year is about learning the rules but all children learn rules at a different pace and through different styles and needs. Apparently in my child's classroom this seems to be more of a demand and not a leanring experience. I would like more creative teaching that opens up to the differences of the children in a celebrating manner and that will then allow the childen to have a voice of their own. With this they will develop their esteem and understanding of who they are in my opinion and therefore be better prepared to enter and enjoy our world of diverse attitudes and behaviors. I feel the students are in an environment where their potential to be creative and to invent and explore is being controlled with the testing attitude and rules and the lack of ability to be themselves. This is a big price to pay in the long run and I feel harmful to child development. I am approaching the experience with caution and ready to remove my child to a more interactive and socail environment that is through and not to what is being learned. This response is not a reflection of the specials being offered during the day although my child had a substitute for music more than 50% of the month of September so far. He has been watching videos as a replacement for the music experience. Comparable is watching videos instead of having math or literacy. The teaching style that I am witnessing this year seems to represent more closely a style I have seen in schools in large cities that have failed. Second grade was in another Milford School and was mainly what I had wished for my child.